If some people expect phone calls to be kept private, they are wrong. Their expectation doesn't change reality.
The phone call itself is private. GSM Cell phone calls are encrypted (is that still unbroken for most people??) Recording is governed by laws that specify for each state how private it is. The police need to get warrants to record.
So when you put your phone in the bin to go through a metal detector, your phone records, text messages, email accounts, Dropbox account, social media accounts, and anything else accessible from your smartphone is fair game for the state?
I am looking at the bin, and I will not let anyone pick up the phone. A cop seeing a phone on a coffee table blinking away with a message on the face of it seems very different to me than what you have described. (I am speculating about several aspects of that vis a vis the actual case.)
Traditional landline calls are not encrypted. Do they not get the same expectation of privacy?
What if you are using a landline with a 90s style cordless phone? No encryption there, those things just spewed analog RF like baby monitors and cordless microphones. You can easily pick up those signals from the street; even further if you want to get slightly fancy with your antenna.
For a time it was legal to intercept those cordless phone conversations, since they were being broadcast over public airwaves. I forget if the legislature changed that before the industry moved their tech away from that kind of infrastructure.
I fully agree that "because someone else can read it, it's not private" is a bad argument.
The phone call itself is private. GSM Cell phone calls are encrypted (is that still unbroken for most people??) Recording is governed by laws that specify for each state how private it is. The police need to get warrants to record.
So when you put your phone in the bin to go through a metal detector, your phone records, text messages, email accounts, Dropbox account, social media accounts, and anything else accessible from your smartphone is fair game for the state?
I am looking at the bin, and I will not let anyone pick up the phone. A cop seeing a phone on a coffee table blinking away with a message on the face of it seems very different to me than what you have described. (I am speculating about several aspects of that vis a vis the actual case.)